The
Alabama Amphibian Network uses two tools used by practicing
herpetologists in the field to sample amphibians: coverboards and PVC
“treefrog shelters.” Coverboards are simply a piece of plywood, lumber,
or other material laid flush to ground level and often covered with
leaf litter. These boards mimic the rotting logs and downed trees used
by many amphibians as habitat by holding moisture and moderating
temperatures, allowing researchers to observe and study amphibians
simply by lifting the boards and documenting what lies beneath.
Coverboard arrays being used in the Alabama Amphibian Network are
composed of twenty 2 x 4-foot plywood coverboards.

PVC
treefrog shelters are simply lengths of PVC pipe hung vertically from a
standing tree and capped at the lower end to retain moisture. Treefrog
shelters act similar to coverboards by mimicking refugia used by
treefrog species in standing or standing dead trees. Researchers can
simply look inside treefrog shelters and document what species may be
using them as shelter. The treefrog shelters in the Alabama Amphibian
Network are composed of ten 2-foot by 1.5-inch lengths of PVC pipe hung
vertically from trees at each site. These shelters have also been
outfitted with a length of “escape rope” to help flying squirrels who
sometimes unwittingly find their way inside.

Why use
coverboards?

Coverboards
and treefrog shelters are both “passive” types of sampling tools,
meaning that animals using them are simply viewing the tools as habitat
and won’t become trapped inside, as occurs with other tools often used
by herpetologists. This low-maintenance approach to sampling suits
environmental education centers, which occasionally go long periods
without an educational group present. The sampling tools used in the
amphibian network are also easy to use, allowing students of all ages
to take part in educational programs using these tools and get involved
in actual scientific research.

What benefits
will the network have?

The
Alabama Amphibian Network is aimed at bridging two knowledge gaps that
hamper amphibian conservation in Alabama: a lack of public awareness
and a poor understanding of species distributions and population
trends. The network approaches this first issue, a lack of public
awareness, by exposing students and citizens to hands-on encounters
with Alabama’s amphibian diversity and directly involving them in
scientific research. This serves to both increase a general
appreciation of biodiversity in the public eye and to increase
scientific literacy among our state’s citizenry.

The
second issue, a poor understanding of species distributions/population
trends, is a problem faced by the scientific community. Despite having
some of our nation’s highest levels of amphibian diversity, Alabama
also suffers from a lack of basic data that scientists can use to guide
amphibian conservation. With amphibians declining both in our state and
worldwide, providing this data is an important first step towards
conservation efforts. The network approaches this issue by allowing EE
centers to serve as long-term monitoring stations for amphibian
populations. The species encountered at each center will be used to
update species’ ranges in Alabama, and over the long term, keep track
of how amphibian populations are doing. Thus, the network’s benefits
are two-fold: EE centers get a valuable educational tool, and
scientists get valuable data on Alabama’s amphibians.